


Liberty's Angels, BH (Before Hamilton)

by indimitable, PaperThinRevolutionary (SingFortissimo)



Series: Pursuit of Happiness [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Assassins & Hitmen, M/M, Organized Crime
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-11-22 19:32:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11386902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indimitable/pseuds/indimitable, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingFortissimo/pseuds/PaperThinRevolutionary
Summary: When Lafayette got back from vacation, he wasn't expecting anyone to be in his apartment. And he certainly wasn't expecting a gorgeous, extremely freckled man to be using it to assassinate someone.When John was given an apartment to use for a mission, he wasn't expecting its owner back for another week. And he certainly wasn't expecting said owner to be extremely attractive, with an accent to die for-- or friends with the head of a crime ring, aka John's boss. That was definitely the important part. The only important part.prequel to Liberty's Angels, but takes place after "The Most Beautiful Thing"





	1. Cherie, I'm home!

John used a skeleton key to let himself into the apartment he was ‘borrowing’ for the assignment, smiling pleasantly at one of the neighbors. “Just checking on his plants again,” he reassured her as he slipped inside. He hoped she didn't talk to the guy who lived here often. He didn't want to have to kill her when this was over.

Once inside, John headed straight for the living room window. His rifle was still set up there, the window cracked open just enough to let the end of the gun through. He peered through the scope, noting the dark and empty apartment across the street with a smile. According to his watch, it was nearly 6pm. If routine held-- and he thought it would-- his target would be home in just a couple minutes.

John relaxed into the sofa, a little sad he'd have to leave this apartment when the mission was over. It was rather lavishly furnished, and the pantry had some very nice cookies in it. But the owner would be back in a week, so he was supposed to take out his target that night and be cleared out by the next.

His laptop, perched on the coffee table, let out the little ding to alert him of an incoming message. He leaned forward to check it, finding three words. 

_“Call me- Angie.”_

John peeked through the scope again, just in time to see a light turn on in the opposite apartment. He knew from his intel that it was the living room, and that in just a couple minutes the curtains would be opened so the target could watch the sunset. Keeping his eyes locked on the other apartment, he pulled out his phone and fumbled with it until he managed to hit Angie’s number.

“Angelica Schuyler.” She answered after one ring, her voice clipped and professional. She obviously hadn't checked who was calling, and John rolled his eyes.

“Hey, it's me, you said to call,” he responded, grabbing the silencer out of his bag and fastening it onto the rifle as he spoke. “I should be ready to take the shot in a couple minutes, I just need your go-ahead. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, you wanted confirmation that the neighbors in your building don't talk too much?” She reminded him. “We just got into security cameras to check, you should be safe.”

“Thanks, Ang,” John smiled. Across the street, the curtains drew back to reveal his target, and he clicked the safety off. “I have the target in view, can I take the shot?”

“Yes,” she confirmed, and his finger was moving towards the trigger right as she followed it up with “no, wait...”

John froze with his finger settled on the trigger, his eyes glued to the target. “What's wrong?” He asked with a frown. “Nothing's changed on my end.”

Angelica swore softly under her breath, and then he could hear her nails practically stabbing her keyboard. “John, shit, you need to… No, you don't have time, goddamn it. He's coming home.”

“He's already home, I can see him right now,” John responded, more than a little confused. Just then, he heard the distinctive sound of a key in a lock, and he froze. “Please tell me that was on your end,” he whispered harshly, his eyes darting around. He had too much stuff laid out to be able to pack up and escape in time, not that there was a good way to get out anyways since the stupid fire escape was broken.

Angelica’s response was a hurried “I’ll send someone in, hide the weapons.” The call shut off quickly, and John scrambled to disassemble the rifle and shove it into his backpack. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite fast enough.

“Cherie, I'm home,” a French-accented voice called into the apartment, adding a sarcastic “oh right, I live alone.”

In less dire circumstances, John might have chuckled. As it was, however, he was sitting with a sniper rifle in one hand and a handgun in the other, very seriously considering killing the owner of the apartment. 

A man, presumably said apartment owner, strolled into the living room. Suddenly, John realized exactly what tall, dark, and handsome looked like. It was standing right in front of him... and looking equal parts terrified and confused. 

“While I appreciate gorgeous men in my apartment, normally I like to invite them in,” the stranger said, his voice shaking just a little. His eyes darted between the weapons in John’s hands, to the cookie wrappers and crumbs behind him, and then finally up to his face. He looked like he was trying to put on a mask of bravado, but there was definite fear in his eyes.

That was good. John could work with fear.

He set the rifle aside, switching the handgun to his dominant hand and pointing it at the other man. The stranger’s eyes widened, and his hand twitched like he was going to grab his phone.

“Don't move,” John snapped, bringing his other hand up to cradle the gun and hold it more securely. He let his tone turn harsh, and settled his face into a glare. He didn't like having to threaten people, especially not ones who looked like this and had French accents that sounded like that. But he couldn't let a stranger potentially endanger their operations, either. “I could murder you without batting an eye, don't even fucking think about moving.”

“Okay, don't have to tell me twice,” the stranger held up his hands in a ‘don't-kill-me’ gesture. John stared him down, still aiming the gun squarely between his eyes.

The taller man let out a nervous-sounding chuckle, holding out one of his hands as if he wanted to shake. John didn't budge.

“I'm Lafayette, ah, Laf,” he told John, letting his hand drop awkwardly down to his side. John's eyes narrowed, and he tried not to think about how the awkwardness and blush might be cute under different circumstances. “You mind telling me what you're doing in my apartment? With guns?”

“I do, actually,” John responded flatly. His mind raced to come up with a sufficiently terrifying threat, but he was saved by the bell-- or rather, the doorbell.

“You wanna, uh, not threaten my guest?” Laf asked, his voice a little higher than it had been a moment ago, and John shrugged.

“Depends on who it is,” he replied, hoping desperately that it was someone Angie had sent as opposed to another civilian to deal with. “You can get the door, I'll stay out of sight behind you. But don't worry, I'll still be able to shoot you if I have to.”

Somehow, that didn't quite seem to reassure Laf. But he moved towards the door nonetheless, opening it while John ducked behind a corner.

“Hi, Laf!” Eliza Schuyler’s voice floated cheerfully around the corner, followed by the sound of her heels clicking against Laf’s floor as she stepped inside. “John, come on out and meet him properly. We need to have a little chat.”


	2. Please Come To Our House

“John, come on out and meet him properly. We need to have a little chat.”

The other man finally lowered his weapon, and Lafayette let out of a puffed breath, relieved more than anything. He quickly took a step closer to--okay, behind--the Schuyler girl, pretending he wasn’t nearly as afraid as he truly was. Despite his best efforts, he knew Eliza could see through the thin facade, past his attempt at being a tough guy down to the little tremble in his hands.

“So could you just not be bothered to let him know what was going on, or what? I thought you said that he knew what was going on,” John nearly snipped, his eyes narrowing just a little bit. Lafayette flinched at the tone and knit his brow. 

Eliza hummed a little and shrugged, her lips curling into a little smile. “It was just a misunderstanding, John, honey. Please don’t get upset with me.” She chirped, her voice gentle and sweet. That tone could usually soothe John at least a little, but today, well... 

“A misunderstanding.” John frowned and rubbed his temples, sucking in a breath. “Eliza, you know I love you?” 

“Of course.” She knit her brow a little, not entirely sure where this could be going, but she knew it wouldn’t be good. 

“And you know I would never do anything to hurt you?” 

“Of course.” She nodded and said again. 

“Then you’ll understand when I have to ask what the _fuck_ you think you’re doing! _A misunderstanding_!?” He snapped, obviously on-edge. Lafayette had shrunk back a little, keeping himself behind Eliza the best that he could. “This business doesn’t have any room for fucking _mistakes_!” 

Eliza was clearly used to John’s attitude, so she just crossed her arms over her chest and sighed, then cocked her hip in an almost motherly fashion. “John, I would really appreciate it if you watched your tone, I really don’t want to have to write this in the report to Angelica,” She warned softly, watching as John seemed to shrink back and deflate. That was a completely fair reaction, as far as Lafayette was concerned. 

“Now, if you don’t mind letting me _explain_ ,” She began and raised a brow, waiting to see if the high-strung merc was going to show her any lip this time around. But in the presence of his silence, she just nodded her head. “I thought Lafayette would be gone for at least two weeks. He wasn’t supposed to return until next Tuesday. So when his business trip was cut short, I was as surprised as you are. You don’t need to take your shitty attitude out on me just because you think it’s fair, because you _know_ it isn’t.

“Anyway, Lafayette is a good family friend of ours, and though he may not know the full extent of what we do, he knows enough to know he’s safe. He said we could use his apartment for a little while, but we didn’t tell him when we would be here, or what we would be doing while he was gone. I realize now that this is a bit of a miscalculation on our part, and Laf, I’m really sorry about that… But you have to understand that I really did this to keep you safe as well…” She said softly. 

John glanced between the two of them, and Lafayette was absolutely convinced that the other two could hear his heart hammering in his chest. 

Lafayette sucked in a breath, then knit his brow. “I… I suppose that I can allow this to continue, if you will just… Tell me what it is that you plan to do with my apartment? And the kind of trouble that we could potentially get into?” 

Eliza seemed to hesitate, but it didn’t last too long before she just nodded her head. “Alright… Please don’t get upset. I.. I know you already have a vague idea of what it is that we do, but…” She sighed and started to wring her hands together. “You have to promise to just trust me, okay?” She requested in a small voice.

There was no hesitation whatsoever from Lafayette though. He took Eliza’s hands and nodded quickly. “You know I trust you. I trust you with everything I have. But you need to trust me as well, Liza. It is not a one path road.” 

“One way street?” John interjected, only to earn a _look_ from Eliza, and a laugh from the stranger. 

“Ah, oui. I suppose a one way street would make more sense? But my point remains. Do you trust me, Eliza?” 

She bit her lip and finally sucked in a breath, nodding her head. “Yeah, I… I do. I trust you. Okay...” She sighed gently, letting out the breath she barely realized she was holding. “I’m sure you’ve realized, as close as you are to myself and Angie, that Liberty’s Angels is… More than meets the eye?”

“No shit.” John muttered under his breath. 

Eliza smacked his arm and frowned. “Keep it up, Laurens.” She warned, her tone verging on sharp. John finally deflated and just walked off, back to the window to set up shop again. He clearly didn’t give two shits if Lafayette agreed to their situation or not, he had a job to do. 

“Is he always this way?” Lafayette questioned, his brows knit tightly together. 

She sighed and nodded her head, rubbing her temples. “Usually, yes, but… That’s unimportant right now. What matters is that… We… Okay.” Another sharp inhale. “Liberty’s Angels is actually a front operation for something… Something much deeper. Much stronger, something that my sisters and I inherited from Uncle George, and… We needed to use your apartment as a safe house. 

“Nothing will come of it on your end as long as you keep this between us. We have connections that could make any trouble disappear if it threatens to rear its head, and we won’t hesitate to use them. But our current target has been stationed in the building across from you, and your apartment has the perfect view for what it is that we need to get done.

“I hate to put this much pressure on you, and believe me, we definitely owe you for letting us use your place, that is, if you’ll still--” 

Lafayette cut her off with a smile. “I’ll let you, on one condition.” He offered his hands to her, which she took with very little worry, looked up at him with a hopeful smile. 

“What’s that?” She asked softly, knowing full well that she and Angelica could make _anything_ happen if they truly set their minds and hearts to it. The world could belong to Lafayette if he so desired. 

A beat of silence passed, contemplation flickering in Lafayette’s eyes before he gave a sweet smile, hiding all of his nerves behind that wall of almost ignorant positivity he always had. 

“I want in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all, i am so sorry about how long this took me. all my spoons went into finishing Figure It Out with pip, and then my finals for summer semester started to kick my ass, but i'm gonna try and be way more on top of this! 
> 
> thank you all for the continued love and support. 
> 
> until next time,  
> -krys

**Author's Note:**

> guess who's back  
> back again  
> guess who's back  
> tell a friend! (please)
> 
> heyo! krys and I are back for a prequel to liberty's angels, this one multi-chaptered (although it won't be nearly as long as la) and full of everyone's favorite gay assassins. not 100% sure when this will next be updated, since I'm about to go on vacation, but we'll hopefully have an update schedule figured out soon! in the meantime, I'd love a review or two to come back to :)  
> <3,  
> Indi


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